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I recently read a Wired profile on Matt Malone. This guy is not your typical dumpster diver. He’s highly educated and makes a six figure salary. Apparently Best Buy’s, Office Depot’s and other big boxes are incredibly wasteful and just toss out tons of perfect (or near perfect) condition items of all shapes, sizes and values. “If he were to …

The Obama administration will take a stab in it’s new budget at important labor market impediment: occupational licensing. Econ blog readers will be familiar with these laws that set frequently overly burdensom rules for who can do certain jobs. They often require far more training than is necessary, expensive classes and tests, and sometimes even degrees before someone can legally …

I work in Houston, which lives and dies by the price of oil and gas. When commodity prices are up, we’re a true boom town, but when they go bad, the whole city can go south quickly. Just in the past week, Schlumberger has announced at least 9,000 layoffs and dozens of other smaller companies are following similar exercises. The …

I love when you find a phenomenal family business story. Even better when its multi-generational. You know a family is doing something right when they manage to not only build their own little empire, but the whole family stays involved long after they don’t need the money. It starts in 1897, when H.D. Pappas immigrated to America from Greece. He …